 Abundant food was obtainable in their territory, but much had to be sought much further afield and brought to the centre — at one season from Lake Ellesmere, at others from the Torlesse range, from the lakes of the interior, from Banks Peninsula, or from the open plains.In some of these out-districts the people occupied partly fortified "pa's", in others they lived on open "kainga" of a few huts without fortification, and in still others they had no more than camping shelters.But their base was Kaiapoi, which, with a population of at least 1000 people, was a considerable Māori town, and the permanent home of the most important chiefly families of the Ngāi Tahu.